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King Cobra trailer: James Franco and Christian Slater star in the ‘Boogie Nights of gay porn’

'No little bitches!'

Christopher Hooton
Tuesday 27 September 2016 11:14 BST
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King Cobra - Official Trailer I HD I IFC Midnight.mp4

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Justin Kelly’s second feature, King Cobra, had some nice words said about it when it debuted at Tribeca, and, this morning, the first trailer arrives.

Based on the 2007 murder of gay porn producer Bryan Kocis it looks to be a creepy, tense and contorting movie, somewhere in a ballpark fielded by Boogie Nights, Spring Breakers and The Neon Demon.

It’s set back in 2006 when porn was stuck behind paywalls and YouTube was yet to really become a thing, and splices low budget porn-style shot with more artistic, HD ones.

James Franco, Christian Slater, Molly Ringwald and Alicia Silverstone star, Franco having previously collaborated with Kelly on his first movie, I Am Michael.

Official synopsis from IFC:

Based on a stranger-than-fiction true story, King Cobra is a deliciously dark, twisted plunge into the behind-the-scenes world of the pornography industry. It’s 2006, YouTube is in its infancy, and internet porn is still behind a paywall. Taking the stage name Brent Corrigan, a fresh-faced, wannabe adult video performer (Garrett Clayton) is molded into a star by Stephen (Christian Slater), a closeted gay porn mogul who runs the skin flick empire Cobra Video from his seemingly ordinary suburban home. But as Brent’s rise and demands for more money put him at odds with his boss, he also attracts the attention of a rival producer (James Franco) and his unstable lover (Keegan Allen) who will stop at nothing to squash Cobra Video and steal its number one star. Co-starring Alicia Silverstone and Molly Ringwald, King Cobra is part delirious, tabloid-shocker satire, part American tragedy.

Though initially offered a minor role in the film, the real life Corrigan is not happy about the movie, tweeting: “It’s made. And it’s not about me. It’s Hollywood’s attempt at bastardizing my early years in porn,” adding that he intends to set the record straight in a memoir.

King Cobra opens in cinemas and on VOD 21 October.

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